Keep Running
by gamer072196
Summary: Lance is Aria's top hacker and he's lived a very comfortable life on Omega. But when Aria asks him to hack the database of one of the most dangerous secret agencies in the galaxy, he gets more than he bargained for. Inspired by Michelle Gagnon's Don't Turn Around with a couple nods to it. All characters and organizations belong to their respective owners.
1. Chapter 1

_ Meet me in Afterlife. I got a job for you._ This was the message Lance received from Aria. As he walked Omega's streets, he wondered what Aria had in mind for him. Hack the Eclipse mainframe? Keep an eye on the Blue Suns? Trace someone who nearly got to Aria's files? Could be that or more. Being Aria's number one hacker meant that he was called on for Aria's most difficult, or sensitive, operations. He had also created the vast maze of firewalls and virtual dead-ends that kept Aria's files away from prying eyes. This meant that Aria kept him happy, as he could easily dismantle it with a few codes that looked like gibberish to anyone other than him. This also meant he was paid handsomely when Aria gave him work.

Hell, the only reason he got in with Aria in the first place was because he hacked her files in just a few minutes. He hadn't covered his tracks and Aria was able to track him down. Instead of killing him on the spot, Aria gave him a deal: if he made it nearly impossible to get to her files from the outside she'd pay handsomely. If he refused, he'd be dead. He was seventeen at the time and terrified out of his mind, so he did as she asked.

He was now nearly thirty and his system had never been beaten. He designed it so that any hacker who was able to get past the first firewall would only run into more and more firewalls as they progressed, and they'd eventually quit out of frustration because of the sheer number of dead-ends. Only the asari had that kind of patience, and even then, it would take so long that by the time they got through, they'd have hit the matron age. It was a crude protection, but it was so effective that he didn't need to change it. The only way to get through to Aria's files in a relatively short amount of time was to have an AI hack it, and since AI's were banned in Citadel space, and no one in the Terminus had the know-how, that was highly unlikely.

He rounded a corner and saw the entrance to Afterlife with Bray in his usual spot in front of it and the elcor bouncer arguing with the same guy who had been trying to get in last week. He rolled his eyes as the man noticed him walk up to Bray, unimpeded. "How come he gets to just waltz in?" the man complains, pointing towards Lance as Bray nods and opens the door.

"Plainly: he is allowed to come and go as he pleases. Back in line," the elcor responds in the monotone voice that exclusive to his race. Lance chuckles to himself as he walks into Afterlife and the door shuts behind him. The club seemed especially packed tonight, krogan, batarians, turians, and other humans like Lance either dancing, drinking, or watching the dancers on the stage. Some of them doing all three at once. There was also the occasional salarian wandering around, and Lance thought he saw a quarian somewhere.

He made his way through the crowd and couldn't help but notice that some of the women in the club watched him. He had never had a problem with women and everyone knew who he was, so he was somewhat used to the attention. He had also noticed some of the dancers watching him as well. He knew better than to get involved with them. They most likely were interested in him for the creds he had. Paul, who was one of Aria's best commandos, had gotten involved with Liselle and they seemed happy together, but Lance knew she was an exception. He had no problem with one-night-stands, but some women on Omega were just not worth it.

The eventually made his way to the stairs leading to Aria's 'throne' and nodded to Grizz, who held up a hand to stop him. The turian knew Lance and only stopped him if Aria was in a meeting with someone. Lance craned his head to get a look and saw that it was Paul. He didn't even bother trying to eavesdrop, knowing Paul would probably tell him about the meeting later. After a few minutes, Paul left and Grizz nodded his head towards the top of the stairs, signaling him to go ahead. He walked up the stairs and turned towards Aria before sitting down on the far end of her couch, laying back in a relaxed position. "So, Aria… what you got this time?" Lance asked, getting right to the point.

"Straight to the point, as always," she replies, handing him a datapad. "I need you to find out everything you can on that group and projects they are running. Think you can handle it?"

Lance read the datapad. It mentioned a group called Cerberus and provided a list of companies it had as fronts, some of which he had heard of. Something about the name of the group irked him. He knew he recognized it from somewhere, but he couldn't connect the name to anything other than the three-headed dog from Greek mythology. "Cerberus? Why does that name sound so familiar…?"

"It used to be an Alliance black op. They were the ones being accused of causing the massacre at Akuze."

"**That** Cerberus?" Now he knew why she went to him. Cerberus had been rumored to be clashing with the Shadow Broker's men a couple years ago. The group had also been accused of testing on rachni and kidnapping human children trying to make super-biotics. From their reputation, they were a force to be reckoned with. "I may need some help."

"How many?"

"You know I don't trust your hackers. Though, I might need some protection if someone is able to trace me."

"You got it. Secure channels only."

"I know the drill. I'll let you know when I've found something." Aria nods as Lance stands up and heads down the opposite set of stairs and passing Garka, who simply grunts in acknowledgment. As he heads back through the crowd, he wonders why Aria would be getting mixed up with Cerberus. _I never thought her to go after a group like that. Then again, she is a practical woman. She might see them as a potential threat._ As he makes his way through the crowd and out of Afterlife, he starts wondering who he could get to help him. No one on Omega, that's for sure.

He had heard of an old hacker coalition that had been around forever called /ALLIANCE/ that pulled pranks on people who did immoral things and posted them on the extranet. He knew their history. A couple years after they started out, some company called AMRF attacked their leader and another member and took down their site and backup wiki. /ALLIANCE/ retaliated by bricking their page after copying their files. They had followed a modified version of the HBGary model that had been used a few years before that.

He had almost joined, but he realized that he'd be a hypocrite because no one in the group did anything illegal and he worked with Aria. Instead, he created his own coalition called /The_Messengers/ that worked together and provided help to those who needed it. He knew that at least half the members weren't humans, but he didn't care. Some of the best hackers were salarians, not humans. He allowed anyone to join as long as they promised to watch each other's backs. They had dozens of code phrases designed for nearly anything they could run into. Only members knew their meanings and what to do.

When he first started out, he went to every hacker haven he knew of on the extranet, looking for hackers who wanted to join. Of course, he found more havens through those sites and eventually he got up to a few thousand members. He had set up three different backup wikis, learning from /ALLIANCE/'s past and preparing for the worst.

He eventually reached his apartment and walked in. The place was a fairly decent apartment, for Omega. He had a couch and huge screen tv in the main room and his personal terminal next to it. His laptop was sitting on the table in front of the couch where he left it. He had several pistols on another table at the far side of the room for protection. Even in the high end of Omega's housing areas, crime was rampant, and some people weren't afraid to cross Aria.

He sat down on the couch, grabbed his laptop, took a stick of gum from his pocket, plopped it in his mouth, and turned on some music from an old rock band that had been popular a couple hundred years ago called Linkin Park. He didn't know much about the band other than the fact that he liked their music.

He opened up the laptop and turned it on, which only took a couple seconds. He jumped on the extranet and made sure he masked his location by jumping from dozens of servers in Omega's system, which was enough to deter anyone who might try to come after him. He made it to /The_Messengers/ homepage and found that some of his best were on. The homepage was just like any other hacker haven on the extranet, set up so that only fellow hackers could get to it.

He created a forum titled 'I think you might like this' and waited a few minutes before several names showed up: Thor, Ymir, Wolf, Vaenia, Acid, and GaMeZ. He smiled when he saw them, they were his best hackers.

After they joined in, Vaenia typed _What's up?_

_ Got a job and I might need help_, Lance responded, his handle, Alpha, showing up in the forum.

_ What's the job?_, GaMeZ asked.

_ Brace yourselves, it's a big one._ He paused before continuing, _We're going after Cerberus._

There was a long pause before Thor typed, _Are you f'n crazy?_

_ I'm up for it_, Acid replied.

_ Same_, Ymir followed. Lance knew Ymir only agreed because Acid did, as they were old rivals.

_ I'm not sure about this_, Wolf typed. Lance wasn't surprised. Wolf had always been a bit hesitant about some of the bigger jobs Lance offered.

_ Hell yeah. I'm in_, Vaenia replied. Again, Lance wasn't surprised. Vaenia hated Cerberus with a passion.

_ Do you need to ask?_, GaMeZ answered, indicating he was good to go. GaMeZ was always up for anything.

_ If you don't want to do this, it's fine. I won't hold it against you_, Lance typed.

_ Dude, you're playin' with fire_, Thor started. _I'm out._ Both he and Wolf left, but everyone else stayed. After a minute, GaMeZ asked, _This a job for Aria?_

_ Yeah_, Lance answered. He only told his most trusted hackers that he worked with Aria so they knew that when he asked for help, he meant it.

_ What does she want?_

_ Hack Cerberus and copy all the files from their projects. Send them to me when you got 'em._

_ Any leads?_, Vaenia asked.

Lance looked at the datapad he got from Aria before typing, _Here's a list of companies they use as fronts:_

He connected the datapad to his laptop and downloaded the list to the forum page. The list was long, naming over a hundred companies, most of which he knew were bogus but still managed to bring in money. Some were legitimate companies that had been around for years.

After a few minutes, Lance asked, _Who's going to follow which leads?_

_ I'll check out the first five_, Ymir answered.

_ I got the five after that_, typed Acid

_ I'll take the five in the middle of the list_, GaMeZ replied

_ Got the last ten_, Vaenia responded.

_ Glad we got that out of the way_, Lanced responded. _Remember: these guys won't like us hacking their network so make sure they can't track you. Watch your backs and if you are being followed, let me know. Hacker channels only._

Everyone confirmed that they understood and left the forum one-by-one. Lance picked several companies at random to check out and put in the url for the first one. The page loaded and Lance got to work. The firewall wasn't all that sophisticated so he breezed through it. He poked around and found a link very well hidden on the page. He clicked on it and it lead to another firewall. He tried the same technique he used to get passed the first one, but he was stopped dead. "Hmm…" He spit his gum into a small bucket next to him and plopped another stick into his mouth, then tried a more advanced technique and got through the firewall, finding another page behind it.

Several pages and firewalls later, he got to a page that had a link to something called 'Project Lazarus.' He clicked the link and found the most sophisticated firewall he ever encountered. He poked the firewall and found just the right place to go through it. The more sophisticated firewalls were set up to shut down the page behind it if a breach was detected so you had to poke around and find just the right spot to go through to get in without being detected.

Past the firewall, there were dozens of files. Lance clicked on one, but it was filled with medical jargon so he went to another file and saw several photos. Each one had a date starting from about two years ago and the first just looked like meat and bones on a metal slab. The next was from a few weeks later and mass of meat and bones started to take the shape of a body. "That's… gross." The following photos showed various stages of the body slowly being rebuilt. When he got to the last photo, his heart skipped a beat. "What the…"


	2. Chapter 2

Lance blinked his eyes a few times and looked at the photo closely. There was a man on a metal slab. He had brown hair and a few scars on his face that were likely from him being rebuilt. His eyes were closed and he had some slight stubble on his chin. There was no mistaking it, the man was Commander Shepard. "Holy shit."

He heard knocking on his door and he quickly downloaded all the files to his omni-tool before shutting down his laptop. Then he realized something. _I'm not expecting anyone, am I?_ He looked toward the windows and realized he hadn't tinted them before he started hacking into Cerberus' files. "Damn it." He looked out the window and saw someone watching him from another apartment and trying not to look obvious about it. The man realized Lance was staring right at him and put two fingers to his ear. "Well, that's just great."

Lance vaulted over the couch and ran to his pistols, grabbing one before his door was blown away by an explosion. He took cover in the hall that lead to his room as five figures dressed in black charged through the doorway. He heard them closing towards him and he primed his omni-tool to electrocute the closest attacker. He checked his pistol and saw that it was set to fire chilled rounds. _Good, that'll slow 'em down._ He saw the barrel of a gun poking around the corner and he readied himself to move first. A figure appeared and Lance raised his omni-tool to the figure's chest, electrocuting him. The figure slumped to the floor and Lance aimed his pistol at the next figure, pulling the trigger and hitting him square in the chest. He ducked back behind the wall as the remaining three started firing. He prepped his omni-tool to launch an incendiary attack, waiting for an opportunity to fire it. The figures stopped firing and Lance launched the incendiary, setting a figure on fire as he shot another figure, nailing him in the head. He ducks behind the wall again as the last figure takes cover behind the couch and the other burns to death. He comes out from around the corner and aims at the couch, waiting for the last figure to show his head.

The figure stands up and Lance fires, only to have the shot be deflected by the figure's shields. "Shit," he curses aloud before he charges at the figure, lunging at him over the couch. The figure's gun goes flying as they go over the table, landing on the floor. Lance places his pistol to the figure's temple and puts his knees on the figure's arms, pinning him. He holds his hand in front of his face as he pulls the trigger. He stands up and looks back to where the man who was watching him was and saw that he was gone. "Gotta be more coming," Lance said to himself. He looked over to the figure he electrocuted and saw that he was trying to move. Lance walked over to him and kicked his gun away. He grabbed the figure by the collar and dragged him to the wall near his window before tearing of his helmet. "Who are you?" Lance demanded, pressing his pistol into the man's temple.

"You're digging into things you shouldn't be messing with," the man responded, his voice hoarse from being electrocuted.

"Fine. If you won't answer me, Aria will get you to talk." Lance hit the man in the head with the butt of his pistol, knocking him out. He set his comlink to a secure channel and contacted Aria.

"Did you find anything?" Aria asked.

"Yeah, but we got a problem."

"What?"

"I got someone tailing me and he's got friends. They just attacked me and I'm thinking it's Cerberus."

"Didn't you cover your tracks?"

"Yeah. I was able to take one of them alive. Think you can get him to talk?"

"Glad to. I'll send some men your way and they'll take care of him."

"Ok. I'm also going to need to get off Omega for the time being."

"Fine. Head to the bunker on D-deck. Paul and Liselle will meet you there."

"On my way." Lance closed the connection before tying up the unconscious man, grabbing his laptop, turning off the music, and leaving his apartment with his pistol holstered. He left the building and traveled to Aria's bunker on D-deck, backtracking several times to make sure no one was following him. He reached the bunker and entered it, seeing Paul, Liselle, and two batarians waiting for him.

"Hey Lance," Paul said, walking up to him. "Heard what happened. You alright?"

"Yeah," Lance replied. "Took 'em down quick."

"Guess that pistol practice did the trick, huh?"

"Yeah. You got anyone following you?"

"No, though I guess it's just a matter of time."

"Why do you say that?"

"Just got a weird feeling that it might happen. You know what it's like working with Aria."

"Got that right. So, where we going?"

"Up to you."

"Might have to go to Council space," Liselle suggests.

"Why?" Lance asks.

"Cerberus knows where you live. Worse yet: they can go after anyone you contact here and get info from them since everyone knows who you are."

"So we go to Council space? You sure?"

"Can't think of anywhere in the Terminus to go that would be safe.

"Ugh, fine. I can't believe this shit."

They all turn and head to a ship docked in the hangar that's used specifically for leaving Omega in a hurry. It's twice the height of a human and three times as long, streamlined with grey stripes running the length of it. The rest of the hull is black, making it nearly impossible to pick up on ladar, and it has a stealth drive based off the one that was used in the Normandy SR-1, which Lance got from the Alliance's database a couple months after it was built. It was one of the fastest in Aria's fleet, though it didn't look all that high-tech. It seemed like it was made from recycled parts from derelict ships and that were reshaped to make a new hull before being repainted.

They enter it and Lance looks around. The ship was roomier than one would think, and it was built for comfort for the passengers. Lance couldn't help but feel a little nervous. This was the first time he was leaving Omega. He wasn't exactly sure who, or what, he would find out there.

"You nervous?" Liselle asked, almost as if she could read his mind.

"Why do you ask?" Lance responded.

"This is your first time leaving Omega, right? Wouldn't be strange if you were."

"I'm not nervous at all," he bluffs, keeping a perfectly straight face. "Just anxious."

"If you say so."

Paul and Liselle headed to the cockpit and Lance sat down in the nearest seat. He put his laptop on the table that was bolted to the floor in front of him and powered it on. He masked his location and got onto /The_Messengers/' homepage, looking for Acid, Ymir, GaMeZ, or Vaenia in the forums to tell them what happened. He eventually found Acid and sent him a chat request. A few seconds later, the chat box opened and Acid typed, _Was just gonna to tell u I found something._

_ Hold on to that for a sec_, Lance replied._ Got something you need to tell Vaenia and the others._

_ What?_

_ I was just attacked by Cerberus and I got someone following me._

_ Shit. U alright?_

_ Yeah. Killed 4 of them and one is being interrogated. My tail disappeared tho._

_ Damn. Guess you're leaving Omega?_

_ Yeah. Headin to Council space._

_ Anywhere specific?_

_ Not yet. Y? You got somewhere I can lay low?_

_ I don't, but I got a buddy who does._

_ Where?_

_ The Citadel._

_ U serious?_

_ Yeah._

_ Great…_

_ What?_

_ Rly didn't want to go there._

_ Y not?_

_ Too many hypocrites._

_ Well, I live on the Citadel. Maybe we could meet up and I could help you out._

_ Not sure about that…_

_ K. Well, u want 2 know what I got?_

_ What?_

_ Something called Project Overlord._

_ Any details?_

_ Yeah, apparently they were trying 2 find a way 2 control geth._

_ Geth?_

_ Yeah._

Every hacker knew it was nearly impossible for anyone to hack a geth for more than a few seconds, though there have been a few master hackers who were able to hack a geth for a full minute. But controlling just one geth permanently was thought to be impossible, let alone all of them.

_ Anything else?_

_ Last record said they were close 2 a breakthrough._

_ But?_

_ That was weeks ago. Nothing after that. It's like they just dropped off the grid._

_ Or everything blew up in their face._

_ Probably. I'll send you the files and let the others know what happened._

_ K. Just be extra careful. Wouldn't be surprised if u got a tail too._

_ K. Here r the files._ After a couple seconds, Lance's laptop beeped as Acid sent the files to him.

"What was that?" Paul asks from the cockpit.

"Getting more files on Cerberus," Lance replies.

"Even after they attacked you, you're still grabbing their files?"

"Why not? They're already pissed at me. Might as well give them more to be pissed about."

"Ha! You always did like annoying the shit out of people."

Lance laughs in response as the last of the files on Project Overlord are sent to his laptop and Acid leaves the chat room. He downloads the files onto his omni-tool and checks his email. His inbox received a message from someone named M4A3E8. Lance furrowed his brow, not recognizing the handle. He clicked the message and it read, _Good, you survived the attack. I'll keep this short: you need to go to the Citadel. Don't trust the batarians in your ship. Don't trust anyone you don't know personally. I'll be keeping tabs on you._

"What the hell?" Lance said, more to himself than anyone else.

"What?" Paul asked, walking up to him.

"Nothing. It's fine." Lance closed his laptop after he answered, looking up at Paul.

"Alright… Well, we're ready to get going. You should send whatever files you got to Aria before we jump to FTL."

"Yeah." Lance sets his omni-tool to send copies of all the files he has to Aria before saying, "Could we go to the Citadel?"

"Why there?"

"Just got a feeling like we'd be better off laying low there, than anywhere else."

"Hmm… That kind of makes sense. In a weird way."

"Glad you think so. Shouldn't you be getting back to the cockpit?"

"Yeah. You should get some rest. Gonna be a long trip."

"Sure." Paul turns around and heads back to the cockpit. Lance looks around and sees the two batarians sitting and talking about past missions and how this one was the most boring one they ever had. He angled himself so they couldn't see him pull up the files from Project Lazarus on his omni-tool. He chose the file that had the photos of Commander Shepard being rebuilt. Looking over the dates again, he noticed that the last one was only from a few days ago. He went to another file and it showed various stats, most of which he didn't understand at all. At the bottom of one of the pages it said 'success' and this confused Lance. _Success? Success with what?_ He closed the file and selected another, which showed a crew log naming everyone who was on the project. As he read the names, he noticed they all said 'deceased' after the names except for two: Someone named Miranda Lawson, who seemed to be the head of the project, and a Jacob Taylor, who was listed as head of security. _What the hell happened that only two people survived?_ He rubbed his chin as he thought about it before deciding that he could think about it later. Then he noticed a side note mentioning the destruction of the base. _Must have been too far gone._

He noticed one of the batarians get up and start walking towards him. He closed the holographic screen on his omni-tool before the batarian asked, "Why are we supposed to be escorting **you**?"

"Let me guess: you don't know the whole story of what just happened to me?" Lance retorted.

"All I know is that you need to get off Omega and we're supposed to keep your ass safe."

"And that's all you need to know. Just follow Paul and Liselle's lead and keep your mouths shut."

"You're lucky you're so valuable to Aria or you'd have a hole in your head."

"And you're lucky I don't think you're worth the effort to shoot."

The other batarian stands up and moves next to his friend. "You think you're so tough, huh?" he says

"Coming to back up your buddy? Figures. Why don't you just go back to whining about how boring this mission is while I get some shut-eye?"

Both the batarians glare at Lance as he leans back in his seat and closes his eyes. He hears them walk back to where they were sitting earlier as he sets his omni-tool to play music into his ear-piece and falls asleep.


	3. Chapter 3

_**A/N:**_ Sorry this chapter is so short. I got a huge headache out of nowhere and I can't type that much cause of it. Also, I'm real tired right now. I'll try to make up for it in the next chapter.

* * *

Lance wakes up several hours later and sees that the two batarians are no longer where they were when he fell asleep. He looks around and still doesn't see them, but he notices Paul walking up to him. He glances down at the table to make sure his laptop is still there before he stands up, stretching his arms and yawning.

"Good, you're up," Paul starts. "We're almost to the Citadel."

"Where are those batarians at?" Lance asks, trying to sound curious rather than suspicious.

"Not sure. It's not like I've been keeping tabs on them."

_ Better check my laptop. Make sure they didn't bug it or anything._ "How long till we dock?"

"Couple hours. Gonna end up on Zakera Ward."

"Alright. Gonna check on my laptop to see if I got any messages. Let me know when we dock."

"You got it." Paul turns around and heads back to the cockpit while Lance opens up his laptop. He goes back to his email and sees that he got an email from Aria. He opens it and it reads, _Good thing you sent me those files on Project Lazarus. Shepard showed up in the system in a Cerberus ship. Looks like it was based off his original one. We talked and he asked about Archangel and that Salarian doctor who's trying to cure the plague in the Gozu district. Seems like he's recruiting for a mission. See if you can find anything on who he plans to recruit. Also see if you can find the plans for his new ship. It seems much more advanced._

Lance was dumbfounded. _I send the files on Project Lazarus to Aria and Shepard shows up in a Cerberus ship looking for Archangel and that Salarian, Mordin Solus? Way beyond coincidence._ He closes out the page and checks through all the files he has, looking for anything that's out of place. Then he finds something: Installs/Devices/Unknown. He clicks on it and it shows that his location was being transmitted to somewhere else. He decided to use his omni-tool to trace it and found that the signal bounced off a relay, which was located on Illium. He traced the new signal and found that it was bounced off another relay, located near Jupiter. Another signal lead to a relay on Aephus, and another to a relay on Horizon. A dozen relays and signals later, Lance found that his location was being sent to somewhere near a blue giant star in the Horse Head Nebula.

_ Why there? There aren't any planets or space stations._ He saved the location onto his omni-tool before removing the bug from his laptop. He double checked it to make sure there weren't any back-ups before pulling his email up again. He had received another email from M4A3E8. He opened it and there was a message which read, _Guess those batarians already bugged your laptop, huh? I'm sure you removed the program. You should try to lose those two on the Citadel. And quick, cause they've been bought off by… you know, I think you can guess who. Keep safe._

"Who the hell is this guy?" Lance asks himself under his breath. He sends a chat request to M4A3E8 and after about a minute, a chat box opens.

_ U want to talk to me, finally?_ he types.

_ Who are you?_ Lance asks.

_ A friend._

_ Be specific._

_ Can't._

_ Y not?_

_ Got enemies too._

_ Where r u?_

_ Can't tell u that either._

_ What can u actually tell me, then?_

_ Nothing u won't find out on ur own._

_ How do u know me?_

_ How does anyone know u?_

_ Enough with the cryptic shit. Can u help or not?_

_ I am helping._

_ Fine, be an ass._ Lance closes the chat box in frustration. _Great, the only source of info I got and I can't get a straight answer._

Lance goes to /The_Messengers/ homepage and finds Vaenia, Ymir, and GaMeZ in the forums. He gets a chat request from Vaenia and accepts it, seeing Ymir and GaMeZ in the chat too.

_ Heard what happened. U alright?_ Vaenia types.

_ Yeah_, Lance replies. _U guys got anything?_

_ I think I got some dossiers_, Ymir responds._ About a dozen._

_ Found plans for some type of ship_, GaMeZ types.

_ I'm not sure what I found_, Vaenia starts. _Something about missing colonies._

_ Rly?_ Lance asks.

_ Yeah._

Lance had heard about the colonies disappearing all across the Terminus Systems. One day they were there. The next, all communication was cut. When teams finally went to check it out, the colonies were deserted. No bodies, no signs of fighting. Nothing. Lance had always thought that it seemed suspicious that it was only human colonies disappearing without a trace. Pirates and slavers didn't care about collateral damage as long as they made a profit. The fact that there was no evidence of anything happening just made everything about the colonies disappearing seem like a conspiracy.

_ U think Cerberus is involved?_

_ Not sure. Maybe._

_ Alright, send me what u got._ Lance's laptop beeps as he receives the files.

"Getting more files?" Paul asks from the cockpit.

"Yeah," Lance replies. "Looks like Cerberus has files on those missing colonies."

"Why?"

"That's what I'm gonna find out." The last of the files are sent to the laptop and Lance types, _K. Got em. Guys, u know anyone goin by the handle M4A3E8?_

_ No_, GaMeZ types.

_ Got no idea_, Vaenia responds.

_ Haven't heard of em_, Ymir replies._ But, I know what the handle means._

_ What?_ Lance asks.

_ Old WWII tank used by the US. A later version of the M4 Sherman. Was also used in the US/Korean war. Nicknamed the 'Easy 8."_

_ Was it still called the Sherman?_

_ Officially, yeah. Crews stuck 2 the nickname tho._

Lance wasn't surprised that Ymir knew what the handle meant. He had a feeling that it was something military related, and Ymir was a military history buff. _Thanks_, he replied. _Make sure ur asses r covered n keep out of sight._

Everyone confirmed they understood and left the chat room. Lance closed the chat box and sent the files he received to his omni-tool. He closed the laptop and pulled up a holographic screen on his omni-tool to look through the files he had. He started with the dossiers, seeing as Shepard was recruiting and obviously had dossiers on his potential recruits.

There were eleven dossiers in all. He looked over the dossiers and a few names caught his eye: Kasumi Goto, Subject Zero; a.k.a: Jack, Thane Krios, Zaeed Massani, and the two survivors from Project Lazarus.

He knew them all, except for the Lazarus survivors, by reputation or by actually meeting them: Kasumi Goto was the best thief in the galaxy, bar none, and she had never gotten caught once. Jack was an extremely powerful biotic, who was wanted all over the galaxy. Lance heard Jack was captured by the Blue Suns. Thane Krios was a drell assassin who was the best in his trade. Lance had run into him in Omega's markets when he was looking for work. He was nothing like what his reputation implied, though it might have had to do with him being drell, Lance had no idea. And Zaeed was the deadliest mercenary in the galaxy. Lance ran into him in Afterlife a few times and they had some drinks together. Last he heard, Zaeed took a job to hunt down some batarian and had another lined up after that. _Is this the job he meant?_

Lance opened the first dossier, which was on Archangel. No one on Omega knew anything about him, so Lance hoped Cerberus had any info. The dossier was very vague, though: expert sharpshooter and an expert in small squad tactics. Not much else that was useful.

He opened the dossier on Mordin Solus, hoping there would be more info on him. It was very detailed: expert in biology, former STG agent, and dozens of degrees from salarian universities in nearly every type of science.

There was almost too much info to go through, so Lance went to the next dossier, which was on someone named Tali'Zorah vas Neema. The dossier was also very detailed: master technician, experience working on Normandy SR-1, formerly named Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, and currently working on a highly classified assignment for some Admiralty Board in geth space. _Quarian? Experience on the original Normandy? Must be the same one that helped Shepard fight Saren and the geth._

The rest of the dossiers were very detailed, especially the ones on Lawson and Taylor. From the dossiers, Lance had a hard time imagining how they were going to work together, especially since one of them was a krogan who fought in the Krogan Rebellions.

He decided to look at the files on the missing colonies, pulling them up and looking at the most recent: Freedom's Progress. It was just like the other colonies that disappeared: relatively small, out of the way, and it had just received GUARDIAN defense towers before contact was lost. Then, something caught his eye. There was a note about some quarians and a recording showing Collectors taking the colonists.

"Collectors? Shit," Lance cursed under his breath.


	4. Chapter 4

_**A/N:**_ Sorry this chapter is late. My life is starting to get kinda chaotic so I'm having a hard time getting the free time to type up chapters. I'll try to have the next chapter up sooner.

Enjoy!

* * *

After the ship had docked on Zakera Ward, Lance, Paul, and one of the two batarians went to find a safe house Aria had on the Citadel for any operations she had in Council space. Liselle and the another batarian went to get some supplies as they were likely going to be staying on the Citadel for a while. Lance created a program that would hack into the Citadel's security systems and make sure that their guns wouldn't show up on the scanners. The program was set to self-terminate after they got through all the scanners so there would be no trace of it.

The entire trip to the safe house, Lance glanced out of the corner of his eye to make sure the batarian wasn't trying anything. He could tell that the batarian was waiting for an excuse to shoot him, though that was probably because of the 'argument' they had on the ship before they left Omega. He decided that now would be a good time to lose him, as there was a big crowd in front of them.

He sped his pace up to catch up to Paul, who was in front of him. He discreetly nudged Paul's arm to get his attention before he whispered, "We should lose our friend in the crowd before we get to the safe house."

"Why?" Paul whispered back, glancing to the batarian.

"He's been bought off. Him and his buddy bugged my laptop."

"How do you know?"

"I removed the bug and I know you and Liselle wouldn't do something like that."

"I mean, how do you know he's been bought off?"

Lance hesitated, wondering whether to tell Paul about his 'friend' that warned him about the batarians. He decided against it, as he wasn't entirely sure how much M4A3E8 knew about him. "Found funds being transferred from an outside account to his."

"Shit. I need to warn Liselle."

"Wait till we lose this one."

"Right. Follow me."

Paul speeds up his pace slightly and Lance matches the change, but the batarian fails to notice the increase in speed, slowly falling behind. Lance follows Paul as he zigzags through the crowd, occasionally doubling back to throw off the batarian. They come out on the opposite side of the crowd after a few minutes and the batarian is nowhere in sight. They half-walk, half-jog, towards a flight of stairs and go down them, stepping down two steps at a time. Once the crowd is out of sight, they slow down and relax a bit. Then Lance asks, "Do those batarians know were the safe house is?"

"No," Paul replies. "Let me tell Liselle to lose the other one before she meets us there."

"Ok." Paul sent a message to Liselle before he and Lance headed to the safe house.

* * *

The safe house was out of the way, more to shroud its entrance than anything. They enter and Lance looks around. The room they entered was dark, but there was enough light to make out outlines of objects, mostly furniture and crates. Paul switched on the lights and Lance's eyes widened. The safe house looked like it hadn't been used in months, which it probably hadn't.

Paul opened one of the crates and pulled out a M-96 Mattock. As he examined it, Lance walked over to him to get a better look. The gun looked old, but it had been refitted to take thermal clips and likely had other modifications.

"Semi-auto," Paul said, admiring the gun. "Punch of a sniper rifle with low heat production. Thank you Aria."

Lance looked into the crate and saw that it was filled with copies of that very gun. He placed his laptop on a nearby table before he walked over to another crate and opened it. He looked inside and saw it was filled with M-6 Carnifexes and its variants: M-77 Paladins and M-11 Suppressors. He picked up a M-77 Paladin and examined it. It looked like a fairly expense pistol, and it felt pretty heavy.

"Nice choice," Paul complimented, looking at the pistol. "Well made pistol. Very accurate and packs a helluva punch too. What else is in there?"

"Bunch of Carnifexes and M-11 Suppressors," Lance replied, holstering his new pistol and placing the old one next to his laptop.

"M-11 Suppressors? Let me see."

Lance grabbed a Suppressor and handed it to Paul, who examined it intently.

"This could have come in handy on a few missions," he says, impressed with the gun.

"I'll bet," Lance agreed. "Anything from Liselle?"

"Not yet. Best get comfortable, we're probably gonna be waiting a while."

Lance nods and grabs his laptop, placing it on his lap as he sits down on a nearby couch. He opened it and powered it on before checking his email. There was another email from Aria. Lance opened it and it read, _Your friend didn't tell us anything. He bit down on a cyanide capsule and killed himself. Also,_ _looks like the plague in the Gozu district has been cured. I sent men in and they found dead vorcha and Blue Suns everywhere. And Archangel… seems like he just vanished. Every merc that was after him is dead, but there are so many bodies it's impossible to tell which one of them is Archangel. The mercs think he's dead and they are arguing over got the kill. Idiots._

"Huh," Lance said to himself. He read the email again before he decided to send Aria copies of the files he got: the dossiers, the ship blueprints, and the files on the missing colonies. After the files were sent, Lance went to /The_Messengers/ homepage and found it was unavailable. He refreshed the page and got the same result. _Really? You've got to be kidding me._ He then went to the first backup wiki and got the same result. _Oh, now they've done it._ He went to the second backup wiki and found that it was unavailable too. Then he checked the third backup wiki and saw that it was still running. _Guess they didn't look hard enough._

He started a thread and titled it 'Payback.' He waited a few minutes and saw hundreds of names show up.

Several were asking what happened and a few others were saying how they wanted to kick the ass of whoever took down the homepage and two of the backup wikis. Then, he saw Vaenia and GaMeZ show up along with Ymir and Acid. When he saw their names, he finally typed, _U guys want to know who to blame? It's Cerberus._

The thread seemed to stop entirely. Then someone typed, _Y? What the hell would they go after us for?_

_ Me, Vaenia, GaMeZ, Acid, and Ymir were hacking their files_, Lance explained.

_ I tried to warn you_, Thor typed.

_ U think this is bad? They attacked me in my apartment._

Again, the thread seemed to stop dead. Then Wolf typed, _But, ur here right now. How'd u get away?_

_ Had to kill em. Had a tail but I think I lost him._

_ Where r u?_ Thor asked.

_ A safe house. Can't say more than that._

_ Well, what's the plan?_ Vaenia typed.

_ Let's show em we mean business. Carpet-bomb the motherfkers. Hack any Cerberus database u can find and copy all their files, then brick em._

The thread erupted with responses like, _Hell ya!_ and, _Let's get those SOBs!_

Lance waited until the thread calmed down before typing, _Once u get the files, contact me and send em over. Work in teams and watch urselves. I'll be laying low for now, so here's a list of their front companies. Good luck!_

Lance put the list of Cerberus' front companies up on the forum from a saved file and watched as everyone else teamed up and picked their targets. The teams ranged in size from pairs to groups of over fifteen. Lance, Vaenia, GaMeZ, Acid, and Ymir labeled the companies they already checked out and several teams had to change targets. After everyone was teamed up and had a target, they left, eventually emptying the thread. _I guess history really does repeat itself. Go figure._

He couldn't help but smile at the fact that everyone was so enthusiastic about taking the fight to Cerberus. Then again, some of them had seemed a little too enthusiastic about it. He should have seen it coming though, as he let nearly anyone join. Now the problem was going to be how he was going to hide in the real world, as well as in the virtual one.

On Omega, he hadn't needed to sneak around and stay hidden. He did his magic from his apartment, where he thought had been safe. But he became complacent, at that's likely what got him to become careless about prying eyes. He was out of his element, so he had to rely on Paul and Liselle to help him stay hidden from Cerberus. It didn't help that he didn't like having to rely on others, which was why he ended up on Omega in the first place, because he didn't ask for help and ended up getting lost. But now, if he tried to rely on himself to keep hidden, he'd probably be found and killed, or captured. And the fact that he was forced to rely on a complete stranger for info despite the fact that he couldn't seem to get a straight answer only made matters worse.

He shook that all from his mind. He needed to focus on laying low while /The_Messengers/ did the mission he assigned them all. He couldn't help, but think that this was only the beginning. Of what exactly, he had no idea.

Lance eventually decided to take a rest since he had nothing better to do. And he certainly didn't want to think about Cerberus 24/7. So he closed his laptop and placed it back on the table, closing his eyes as he laid back on the couch, swinging both legs onto the table in front of him.

* * *

He woke a few hours later to a knock at the door. His eyes snapped open and he glanced next to him to see that Paul was passed out on a nearby chair. His hand went to his M-77 Paladin out of reflex as he got up and walked over to the door, pulling out the pistol and pointing it toward the door. He reached the door and hid his pistol behind his back as he opened it. In front of him stood two men dressed in black, both human. _Shit._

"Who are you?" Lance asked, suspicious.

"Hello," the first man started, faking a smile. "We are doing a door-to-door questionnaire for those who are living on the Citadel for a limited period of time."

"You mean, 'temporary residents.'"

"Uh… Yes. That is what I meant."

"Yeah… not interested." Lance went to close the door but the other man grabbed his wrist, rather firmly.

"We insist," he said, still gripping Lance's wrist.

Lance shook him off before saying, "Look, pal, I don't know you and I don't want to. Go away."

He watched their hands as they both looked down and reached behind their backs, grabbing what, he assumed, were guns.

He didn't wait to see what they were grabbing, shutting the door before they could stop him.

He locked the door before turning around and rushing towards Paul. He shook him awake as he heard the two men trying to get through the door.

"Ugh… What?" Paul said, yawning.

"Get your ass up!" Lance ordered. "Cerberus is here."

"Son of a bitch. I can't just get a decent rest before trouble starts." Paul gets up and grabs his M-96 Mattock aiming it at the door while Lance aims his pistol.

They continue to aim at the door while they wait for the intruders to get through the locks. After a minute or two, the door flies open and the two men charge in, wielding M-11 Wraiths.

Paul is the first to respond, firing three shots into the chest of the first intruder, taking him down. He ducks as the second intruder fires at him before being shot by Lance twice. Once in the chest and once in the head.

They get down behind a couple of crates as five more men charge in, wielding Mattocks and Phalanxes.

"Damn it!" Lance swears as a bullet ricochets off the crate, past his head. "When the hell is Liselle getting here?!"

"Don't know!" Paul replies before popping out of cover to fire off three more shots, hitting another intruder. He ducks down again before he says, "Let me find out!"

Paul puts two fingers to his ear as Lance pops up and takes down another intruder and says, "Liselle, you read me? Where are you?"

Lance notices three more men charge in as Paul says, "We're under attack! Get over here as soon as you can!"

_ How many of these assholes are there anyway?_


	5. Chapter 5

As they continued to take down intruders, more and more continued to pour through the doorway in a seemingly never-ending stream. Lance half-hoped that C-Sec would show up.

As Lance took down two more men, a bullet hit him in the arm. He yelped in pain, gripping the wound with his other hand as he dropped back down. He used his omni-tool to dispense medi-gel on the wound, closing it and stopping the bleeding.

He looked toward Paul and noticed that he wasn't as calm and focused as usual, he was legitimately concerned. Lance's heart sank at the sight as he realized that if Liselle didn't get here soon, they'd be dead. _Might as well take out as many of these bastards as we can._

That was when Lance heard gunfire coming from outside the safe house, as well as screams followed by loud thuds, which sounded like something soft hitting metal hard. It had to be Liselle. Who else would be trying to fight through Cerberus?

Lance glanced back to Paul who seemed to be smiling at the arrival of their reinforcements.

Lance and Paul continued to take down the intruders that were in the safe house before a body went flying into one of them so fast that they both went into a wall, which was easily ten feet away. _Where'd Liselle learn to do that?_

Then a human, a turian, and a krogan charged into the room, firing at the remaining attackers. The krogan laughed heartily as he charged head-first into one of the men, continuing until they hit a wall with a loud 'crack,' indicating bones had been broken on impact. The man slumped to the floor before the krogan blasted him in the head with his shotgun.

The turian had an entirely different style, getting several headshots in rapid succession with his assault rifle. He laughed and shouted, "Scoped and dropped!" as his targets fell to the floor.

The human, however, seemed to have a deadly focus on his targets, launching himself at one with the use of biotics and shooting another in the chest at close range with his shotgun. He said nothing at all as he used his biotics to lift another man off the ground before shooting him.

It was all over in a few seconds. Paul and Lance looked around the safe house, bodies and bullet holes everywhere, before focusing their gaze on their rescuers. Lance's eyes widened in shock as he recognized the human in the group.

Despite the glowing red scars that crisscrossed his face and his eyes doing the same, Lance knew that the man who saved him and Paul was Commander Shepard.

"Holy shit," Paul gasped, obviously shocked as well.

Shepard looked at them with a slight glare, probably from annoyance from the way he stood. The turian looked at them and said, "You two alright?"

"Yeah," Lance found himself saying, despite the bullet wound to his arm.

"Why was Cerberus after you?" Shepard asked abruptly, being very direct.

Lance debated how much to say. He knew that Shepard was working for, or at least with, Cerberus. He also knew it was Cerberus that had brought Shepard back to life. For all he knew, Shepard was here to find out how much he knew about Cerberus' projects so Cerberus was able to determine how much of a threat he was, but, for some reason, he doubted that. They had those files on those missing colonies and those dossiers for a reason.

He could tell that Shepard was growing impatient, and he was actually intimidated by him. He wasn't one to be easily intimidated, since he grew up one Omega, but Shepard's scars really creeped him out.

He finally decided to give him the basics of why Cerberus was after them. Shepard didn't need to know everything that happened.

"I was hacking into their files," he said, thinking that explained enough.

Shepard's eyebrow rose at hearing that, though the rest of his body stayed perfectly still.

Then the turian said, "Why?" his mandibles twitching in curiosity.

Again, Lance debated how much to say. "It was for a job." _Well, more like _is_ for a job._

"Hell of a risk," Shepard said. "You work for the Alliance?"

The question caused Lance to chuckle involuntarily, thinking about the irony of the question. _Yeah, and I'm also a hanar._

"Hell no." He winced when he heard himself say it out loud. He hadn't meant to add the edge of distaste in his voice.

Shepard didn't seem to notice, examining Lance from head to toe, likely sizing him up.

"Well, what are you doing here?" Lance asked despite the fact that he already had an idea. "Everyone thinks you're dead."

"Cerberus rebuilt me," Shepard replied, Lance making himself look surprised. "I guess they didn't think I'd kill some more of their guys while I worked with them." Shepard looked around the room at the bodies of the men he and his team killed.

"Wait," Paul started, "you destroyed a dozen of their bases when you were fighting Saren and the geth. Why would they bring you back?"

"The Illusive Man said that he wanted me take down the assholes that were kidnapping the colonists in the Terminus."

Paul seemed to tense up at the mention of 'the Illusive Man.' The name was ominous, sure, but it wasn't exactly intimidating. A thought ran through his mind, suggesting that Paul might have known the Illusive Man at one point, but Lance brushed it away, telling himself it was nonsense.

This appeared to be why Cerberus had the files on those missing colonies and those dossiers. Then a thought occurred to him that he hadn't realized before. "If Cerberus wants you to stop the colonies from disappearing, why are they letting you recruit non-humans?"

"Hell if I know. Honestly, I don't really care. They gave me a ship, resources, a crew, and no restrictions. Just how I like it." Shepard seemed to smile, his scars contorting on his face, some opening somewhat, revealing implants deep under his skin. The sight made Lance shudder, and Shepard seemed to like the reaction.

Lance shifted his gaze to the turian, who was clad in blue armor with a chunk missing from the collar-guard, the area around it burnt. He noticed that the turian had a cloth of some sort on the same side of his face, reaching from the base of his neck to just under his cheek plate, reaching across the part of his mandible that connected to the rest of his face. On the other side of his head, he wore a visor that was likely customized for his use only, with words scratched onto it. When he focused, he could tell they were names, but he couldn't read them clearly.

He then glanced to the krogan. He wasn't as big as the krogan Lance had seen on Omega, nor did he look as old as them. The plate on his head wasn't a solid piece like Lance had normally seen, looking like someone had decided to glue a bunch of flat rocks to the krogan's head instead of giving him a plate. The armor he wore was white with a blue light glowing in the space between his upper torso and waist. His hump wasn't all that big, which he noticed seemed to be huge on the older krogan he had met, like Patriarch. Lance wasn't sure how this krogan could have fought in the Krogan Rebellions. He probably was younger than Lance.

He looked back to Shepard, who seemed to be sizing him up again. "You know," Shepard started, rubbing his chin with his hand as he place his shotgun on his lower back, "I think I could use someone like you on my crew."

Lance was shocked. _Shepard wants me to help him? This can't be real._ "But, you're working for Cerberus."

"With. Not for. Besides, you obviously have no loyalty to Cerberus, and I could use your hacking skills."

_ Holy shit, he's serious._

"Your crew is Cerberus though. What makes you think they won't try to kill me?"

"That won't happen," the turian said, matter-of-factly. "Shepard has a strict 'don't kill the squad' policy." The turian chuckled and Shepard just rolled his eyes, obviously not thinking it was funny.

Lance felt somewhat reassured at the turian's joke, but a new thought crossed his mind. _Shit. What about Aria?_ He couldn't just join up without telling her. She'd be pissed. But then, he thought about how much easier it would be for him to access Cerberus' files if he joined, having the files pretty much right in front of him, waiting to be copied.

Then he remembered that /The_Messengers/ were going to brick Cerberus' servers if they hadn't already. But, maybe he could keep it under wraps that he was the head of the coalition and claim he had nothing to do with it. And besides, he would probably be safer on Shepard's ship than on the Citadel.

He looked to Paul, not sure if he should actually take the offer. Paul didn't seem to know what to do either though, looking dumbfounded.

"Come on, hurry up," the krogan complained, sounding very annoyed.

Lance weighed his options one last time before deciding to accept. "I guess I'll come with you. I just have to make a call real quick."

"Fine. Hurry up," Shepard said, impatient.

* * *

The two men he, Garrus, and Grunt had just saved didn't seem like the type to be living on the Citadel. Shepard guessed that they were from somewhere in the Terminus, though he had no idea where specifically. Something irked him about the hacker, though. It was almost as if he knew more than he was letting on, and was choosing his words carefully.

It was more of a gut feeling than anything, but he had learned to trust his gut, it kept him alive. It kept him alive on Mindoir when the batarians hit, and had continued to do so his entire military career, especially on Torfan when he lead his squad to kill every batarian slaver in the underground base that was located there. Most of them died, but they'd made sure none of the slavers made it out of there alive, which made the losses acceptable. At least in Shepard's mind. The media had a field day with the reports on the casualties, naming him the Butcher of Torfan. It was supposed to be a shameful title, but Shepard bore it with pride. He actually liked the title because it made him sound intimidating.

He had noticed the hacker shudder when he smiled and it made him feel good. The man was obviously disturbed by his scars, which he liked. Every time he looked in the mirror and saw the scars crisscrossing his face, he couldn't help but feel proud. They were much more pronounced than the ones he used to have, the ones he earned at Torfan, and thus, were hard to miss. He felt a slight twinge of nostalgia at remembering his old scars, which reminded him that he didn't earn these new scars, they were from his body rejecting his implants and trying to eject them. It was a fruitless effort though, as the implants were a part of him just like his skin and muscles. That didn't stop his body from trying.

He had sized up the hacker twice when he was in the room. The man was blonde, about 6 foot, slightly stocky with a slight tan. Shepard assumed that wherever he was from, there was quite a bit of sunlight. He seemed like he could handle himself in a fight though, despite his background as a hacker.

If he was going to recruit the guy, he'd have to get him some armor and have Garrus make sure he could use his omni-tool for combat. He didn't trust Miranda to help, especially since Cerberus was after him and Shepard treated her like trash, not that he cared one way or the other what she thought of him. Mordin would probably be too much for the guy to handle, since he spoke a hundred miles a minute. Shepard could barely stand his rambling, wanting to strangle that damned salarian. But, of course, he couldn't do that. Mordin was the one who was supposed to be figuring out how to keep the Collectors from taking them like they did the colonists.

Oddly enough, the one he seemed to get along with most of the time was Grunt. They'd brag about their scars and reminisce about the recent fights they'd been in. They'd also had a couple drinks together once or twice.

The last krogan he knew, Wrex, wouldn't fall in line on Virmire, despite the war stories they had traded and drinks they had. So he killed him, two shots to the chest and four to the head. It might have been overkill, but he wasn't taking any chances. He still didn't understand why Wrex cared so much about Saren's supposed 'cure' to the genophage. Odds are, there would end up being another war with the krogan if they were cured. Even if there wasn't, they'd end up over-running the galaxy in a couple hundred years, because they bred like rats.

He thought back to his dossiers as he waited for the hacker to finish with his call. He still had to recruit someone named Jack. Supposedly, Jack was an extremely powerful biotic who also was a wanted criminal all over the galaxy. That had him intrigued. He could use someone with that amount of power. The dossier said that Jack was being held by the Blue Suns on the prison ship Purgatory. He thought it was a fitting name considering its role, but he wasn't exactly sure how the Blue Suns got into locking up criminals. He dismissed it as a thought for another time.

A little bit later, the hacker entered the room, walking up to them and stopping next to his friend.

"So?" Shepard asked impatiently.

"I told my… employer the situation," the hacker replied, as if he was trying to find the right words.

"And?"

"As long as you keep your crew off me and you allow me access to Cerberus' databases, we're good to go."

_ Hmm… reasonable demands. Why not?_ "Sure."

The hacker looked to his friend and said, "You should get ready to head back. Make sure Cerberus doesn't follow you."

The man nodded and the hacker returned his gaze to Shepard, indicating he was good to go.

Shepard, Garrus, and Grunt turned around and they all started heading back to where the Normandy was docked. As they left the apartment, Shepard noticed an asari show some interest in the hacker, but he ignored it. _Probably a friend of his._

"So," Garrus started, looking at the hacker, "who are you, exactly? You obviously aren't from around here."

"Lance," the hacker replied.

_ Lance._ Shepard made a note of the fact that he didn't say anything else.


	6. Chapter 6

_**A/N:**_ I decided to add another OC. She's an asari who's had a relatively sheltered life on Illium. I also jumped back to Lance the day after he joined the Normandy crew.

Enjoy!

* * *

Kormia T'Nor woke up in her apartment on Illium after a restless night. She had hardly any sleep at all, half excepting someone to break down her door and drag her away. She told herself it was just paranoia, as her apartment was in one of the safest areas on Illium. But that didn't seem to help. What made it worse was the fact that she was a member of /The_Messengers/ and had taken part in the raid on Cerberus.

She had been with two other members who focused on preparing to brick the server while she copied all the files that were stored there. She still had the files because she hadn't been able to contact Alpha, the leader of /The_Messengers/. She hadn't looked at the files, though she was very curious as to what they were about. Having the files made her feel like a target was painted on her back, growing bigger every minute she had them.

She got up and decided to try and contact Alpha again. Hopefully he hadn't been attacked by Cerberus.

She reached over for her laptop, which was on the table next to her bed, and placed it on her lap, flipping it open and powering it on. She went to the only remaining back up wiki, logging in under her handle, Azure, and looked around the forums, not seeing Alpha anywhere. She then went to her email, hoping for something to indicate what was going on. Unfortunately, there was nothing new. She furrowed her brow in disappointment. She really wanted to get rid of the files.

She heard a knock at her door and she froze. _Is it Cerberus? Please don't be them._

She moved her laptop onto her bed and stood up before slowly walking over to the door. She pulled up a holographic screen that was next to the door and saw that there was an officer standing there, waiting for someone to answer the door. Like all the cops on Illium, she was asari, her skin purple and without makeup.

She breathed a sigh of relief when she recognized the officer as Detective Anaya. She opened the door and said, "Hello, detective. Can I help you with something?"

"I'm here to tell you that a Justicar has arrived in port," Anaya said, her tone very official.

"A Justicar? Here?" Kormia had heard about Justicars while growing up on Thessia, and had dreamt of becoming one. But, there were sacrifices she just wasn't willing to make: giving up nearly all material possessions, the high risk of death in just the training, devoting herself to upholding the Code… She couldn't do that. "Why?"

"I do not know. All she says is that her investigation lead her here."

"But, Justicars never leave asari space. What could she be looking for?"

"Again, I do not know."

"Well, who is she?"

"Justicar Samara. I suggest you be on your best behavior, and have a good day."

Kormia nodded and Anaya turned and walked away. She closed the door and turned around, leaning against the door and lifting her hand to her forehead. _First Cerberus and now a Justicar? Great…_

She straightened herself and walked back over to her bed, sitting down and grabbing her laptop, placing it on her lap again. She looked at her email again and saw that she had received an email from Liara T'Soni, who she had been working for ever since she came to Illium, nearly two years ago.

Liara was less than half her age, but only by twenty or so years, and she was already one of the top information brokers on Illium. That was partially due to her connections, and partially due to Kormia's hacking skills.

She opened the message and it read, _I need you to find whatever you can on Nassana Dantius for a client. The client also wants any blueprints you can find on the Dantius Towers. Send them to me as soon as you get them._

"Nassana Dantius? Today just gets better and better…"

She typed in the url for Dantius Corporation and started poking around the firewall, getting through in less than a minute. She looked around before finding personnel files, opening them and scanning the names for Nassana. However, she didn't find anything on her, which wasn't surprising considering how paranoid she had become.

After a bit more digging, she found a file that was protected by a firewall, preventing her from opening it. _Got you now._ She got through the firewall about a minute later, the name Nassana Dantius showing up on the file. She copied the file and downloaded the copy to her omni-tool before she typed in the url for the corporation that was tasked with building the Dantius Towers, which was a branch of the Dantius Corporation. After poking around and going through several firewalls, she found the blueprints for the Dantius Towers.

She copied the blueprints and downloaded the copy to her omni-tool before she backed out of the site, heading back to /The_Messengers/' back up wiki, looking for Alpha again. Unfortunately, he still hadn't shown up.

She sighed in frustration, then she sent the files and the blueprints she had copied to Liara. She noticed the Cerberus files that were still on her omni-tool and her curiosity got the better of her. She opened the files and saw one that was labeled 'Potential security risks.' She opened it and saw hundreds of files show up, each labeled with handles that she recognized, including the ones that she had worked with last night.

_ What the..._

She continued scanning through the files before she noticed two that stood out: Alpha and her handle, Azure.

She froze when she saw the file, her blood running cold. Hesitantly, she opened her file and found that it was extremely detailed, including her name, her employer, places that she went to frequently, her income, and, most disturbingly, her address.

She quickly looked around, starting to panic. The fact that Cerberus knew nearly every aspect of her life scared her to death. _I'm not cut out for this. I need to get rid of these files._

She looked out the windows and saw what she normally saw: sky cars and the occasional ship zooming past in both directions, all with purpose and speed. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary, but that didn't calm her down. She looked back at the holographic screen and saw something at the bottom, scrolling down to get a better look. She read it and breathed a small sigh of relief. _Neutralization Priority: Low_, it read.

She closed out the file and opened the one on Alpha, ignoring all the personal information and scrolling down to the bottom. She read it and her blood ran cold once again.

_ Neutralization Priority: Eliminate on sight._

* * *

Lance woke on his bunk on the Normandy SR-2, stretching and yawning as he climbed out of bed and headed to the Mess.

The ship was somewhat what he'd expected it to look like on the inside: Cerberus logos and 'SR-2' all over the walls with pretty much everyone wearing the Cerberus logo on their shirts. The hull was somewhat similar to the original Normandy, though on a much bigger scale.

Shepard had introduced him to the people that he'd recruited so far, making sure to point out that Miranda was very pro-Cerberus. He hadn't talked much to anyone other than Zaeed and the turian, Garrus, mostly because he wanted to learn who to stay away from. Garrus had offered to help him install combat protocols onto his omni-tool, but Lance showed him that was already taken care of. He had seemed fairly impressed about that, probably because he hadn't expected it.

When he had first been introduced to the crew, he noticed Miranda glaring at Shepard, almost as if she hated him with a passion. When Miranda had turned her gaze to him, she had a look of utter distaste, and Lance matched that look with one of his own. She had rolled her eyes and walked out of the briefing room, muttering something to herself.

Jacob though, was much more welcoming, shaking his hand and introducing him to EDI, the ship's AI.

The thought of EDI had concerned him, not because AI's were illegal, but because there was a real chance that the AI could access Aria's files and send them to Cerberus, revealing everything that Aria now had on them.

He walked into the Mess and saw that it was in a state of chaos, crew men and women rushing everywhere, Miranda barking orders amidst them. She glared at Lance when she saw him, Lance instinctively glaring back, a reflex he had developed on Omega.

He heard a door swish open to his left. When he turned, he saw Kasumi walking out of the port observation deck, looking around as if she thought she had missed something. She walked over to Lance, her shadowed eyes glancing around at the chaos. "What's going on?" she asked, confused.

Lance shrugged, despite the fact that he had a good idea about what happened.

Kasumi's eyes turned toward Miranda before returning to Lance. "Miranda **really** doesn't like you."

"It's kind of hard not to notice," Lance replied plainly.

"Well, it's not like she tries to hide it." Kasumi chuckled to herself.

"You think there's something good to eat right now?" Lance asked, trying to change the subject.

"I don't know. Shepard got some spices and stuff on the Citadel before he found you. Maybe Rupert has put it to good use."

Lance nodded and they both headed to where Rupert, or rather, Mess Sergeant Gardner, was stationed, cooking something that smelled very delicious. Lance's stomach growled in hunger as he approached, his mouth starting to water.

Yesterday, the food tasted horrible, and smelled just as bad. Rupert had blamed it on low-quality ingredients, saying that he wasn't a miracle worker.

Today, it was the exact opposite. Granted, Lance had never had a 'high-quality' meal, living on Omega, but he knew good food when he smelled it.

They approached Rupert, dodging the rushing crew mates on the way. When they got to him, he turned around and said, "Hey! Glad at least you two stopped to grab a bite!"

"Hopefully it's better than yesterday," Lance replied, eyeing the pots and pans that were strewn about on the counters and oven, some of them holding different kinds of food.

"Well, thanks to the ingredients Shepard got on the Citadel, this will be a meal fit for a king!"

"How about a taste?"

"Sure. Here, try my Calamari Gumbo." Rupert dipped a large spoon into one of the pots and held it out for Lance to try. He grabbed the spoon and poured the contents into his mouth.

It was delicious, causing Lance to chuckle loudly in delight. "Damn, that's good!" he said, handing the spoon back.

"I thought you'd like it."

Lance the felt a hand land on his shoulder and yank hard, turning him around. He was face-to-face to Shepard, who seemed to be pissed about something. _Shit._

"What did you do?" Shepard demanded, his voice booming.

"What are you talking about?" Lance replied, keeping his voice calm and making himself sound confused.

"The servers! What the hell did you do?!"

_ Guess they got bricked._ "I didn't do anything," Lance claimed, only half-lying. "Why do you think it was me?"

"Everything was fine before I brought you onboard. Next thing I know, the all the servers are gone. I can only think of one way that could have happened!"

_ Shit, shit, shit._ "Do you realize how many hackers there are out there? And besides, why would I take out the servers if you gave me free access to them in the first place?"

Shepard paused, probably because he hadn't thought of that before.

Suddenly, EDI's voice came from the intercom, "Shepard, I have reconstructed all the files pertaining to our mission."

"Any idea where this attack came from?" Shepard asked, irritated.

"No. There were hundreds of firewall breaches all over the Cerberus network seconds before the servers were taken down, indicating a massive attack from an outside source. It is impossible to trace the attack's origin."

Shepard glared at Lance before scoffing and turning around, storming away.

_ That was close._

"What was that about?" Garrus asked as he approached from the main battery.

"Nothing," Lance replied.

Garrus seemed to shrug before saying, "Well, whatever it was about, seems like you got on Shepard's bad side."

"No shit."

"Don't worry, he won't kill you. He's too logical to not see how useless you'd be if you were dead."

"That's very comforting," Lance replied, sarcastically. Then, he heard a series of beeps came from his omni-tool, indicating that someone was trying to contact him. "I gotta take this."

Garrus and Kasumi nodded as Lance headed back to the Crew's Quarters, keeping an eye on Miranda on the way.


	7. Chapter 7

_**A/N:**_ Sorry this chapter is so late. I haven't been giving myself much time to type out chapters.

Enjoy!

* * *

Lance entered the Crew's Quarters and looked around, seeing no one else in the room. He locked the door behind him and climbed into his bunk, making sure that no one had replaced the bugs he had found and deactivated, which he had stuffed into a case for Aria.

He accepted the call, setting the audio to go straight to his earpiece.

"Have you gotten anything new?" It was Aria.

"Haven't gotten a chance," Lance replied, keeping his voice low so that no one could hear him outside. "Bugs all over the place and that damned AI is everywhere at once."

"Get those files. I'll give you one solar day to send me anything new."

"Fine. I'll figure something out. The commander is getting suspicious of me."

"Then I suggest you hurry."

"No shit. I was able to knock out and grab some of the bugs. I'll drop 'em off at the next port and let you know where to find the case."

"That's not what I asked for… I suppose a bonus is in order, then. That doesn't excuse you from that deadline, though."

"Didn't think it would."

"Good." Aria cut the connection, Lance scoffing under his breath. _Once I get all the files that were grabbed from Cerberus' servers, I need to get out of here._

There was a loud knock at the door and Lance jerked his head toward it. He climbed down from his bunk and walked over, unlocking the door and opening it. He saw the krogan, Grunt, standing in front of him, holding his Claymore with one hand, resting it on his shoulder with the barrel pointed upward.

"Yeah?" Lance asked, curious why Grunt would be here.

"Come on," the krogan replied, his deep voice reverberating around the room. "Shepard wants to see your skills for himself."

"What do you mean?"

"We're docking with a prison ship. Think it's called Purgatory. He's expecting a fight." Grunt chuckled to himself, nudging his shotgun with his shoulder.

"Uh-huh. Alright, just let me throw on my armor."

The krogan rolled his eyes and turned, heading for the elevator as Lance grabbed his armor, slipping it on.

* * *

They had docked with the prison ship Purgatory and Shepard, Grunt, and Lance had boarded through the airlock. As they approached a group of guards, all clad in Blue Suns armor, Lance looked around. There were large windows to the right, showing the Normandy docked and waiting. To the left was a row of stasis pods, running along the length of the wall.

They reached the guards and one of them, a turian, said, "Welcome aboard the Purgatory, Shepard. Your package is being prepped and will be ready soon. As this is a high security vessel, I'm going to have to ask you to relinquish your weapons."

Shepard draws his pistol, aiming at the guard's head from his hip, Grunt drawing his shotgun and aiming at another. Lance primed his omni-tool to launch a combat drone and drew his pistol instinctively, anticipating a fight. "I'll relinquish one bullet," Shepard started, his tone menacing. "Where do you want it?"

"Everyone stand down," ordered another turian, approaching from the door in front of them, his face devoid of any sort of face paint that Lance had associated with his race. "Commander, I am Warden Kuril. Your weapons will be returned on the way out. You must understand that this is simply a security precaution."

"No one takes my gun." Kuril stared down at Shepard and Shepard returned the look, plus interest.

"Let them proceed. Our facility is more than secure enough to deal with three armed guests." The turian scanned the group as they holstered their weapons, his eyes locking on Lance. "Ah. Lance. What are you doing here?"

"Long story," Lance replied crossing his arms. "Never thought that you'd be the one running a prison."

"You two know each other?" Shepard asked, sounding somewhat suspicious.

"We've crossed paths."

"'Crossed paths'?" Kuril echoed. "Last time we met, you had drained my account and were trying to blackmail me."

"'Trying'? I'd say it worked. I still got those files ready to hit the extranet in case you want to try anything."

"Enough," Shepard ordered, silencing the room. "Hand over Jack so we can leave. I've got better things to do than listen to you two."

Kuril rolled his eyes before motioning the group to follow him through the door. As they walked, Kuril started talking about the prison, but Lance tuned him out, setting his omni-tool to play music in his earpiece. He looked around, seeing thousands of large blocks, which he assumed were cells, lining the walls, some of which were being moved around by large mechanical arms that came out of the floor and ceiling. He looked down and saw people of different races, mostly human and batarian, dressed in orange jumpsuits, walking around. Some of them were getting into each other's faces, as if trying to start a fight, only to be separated by some type of force field.

He turned down the music in his earpiece before asking, "What's your angle? I know you aren't just doing this because it's the 'right' thing to do."

"You think you know me?" Kuril responds, glaring at Lance from the corner of his eye.

"How much do you think I know? You know how much info I got on you?"

The turian deepened his glare, Lance smirking back in response. He looked back toward Shepard, saying, "Jack is waiting in out-processing, straight ahead. Just keep going past the interrogation rooms and the supermax wing." He gave Shepard a hard look, which Shepard matched. "I'll catch up with you later. Shepard." Kuril turned and headed back down the way they had come from, glaring at Lance as he walked past, who flipped him off.

When the turian was out of sight, they followed his directions, passing a room where a guard was beating a prisoner with the butt of his pistol. Ignoring it, they continued, reaching a door that opened into an empty cell. "I knew he was up to something," Lance commented.

"I'm sorry commander, but you'd be far more valuable as a prisoner, than a customer," Kuril said, his voice coming from speakers overhead. "Drop your weapons and enter this cell and you won't be harmed."

Shepard scanned the ceiling, seeing a camera at the far corner of the room, above the door they had entered. He drew his pistol and fired, destroying the camera. "There's my answer," he declared, holstering his pistol and pulling out his shotgun, flaring his biotics.

"Activate systems!" At this, several guards and mechs charged through the door. Lance drew his pistol while Grunt drew his shotgun, charging at the closest guard. Lance launched a combat drone and shot a guard in the head as Shepard threw himself at a mech with use of his biotics and Grunt head-butted a guard, causing the guard's helmet to crack from the force of the blow. Lance launched an incendiary attack and took cover, turning his music back up. He smelt the armor of a guard burning and popped up to shoot a mech, causing it to explode.

Several more guards charged into the room, also backed by mechs. One by one, they were killed. When the room was cleared, they left and fought through some more guards as they made their way to where Jack was being held. The room was defended by a single researcher, who Shepard shot in the head.

Lance examined the controls, realizing that if he wanted to hack it, he would need time they didn't have. "The controls are set to open every cell on the ship if they are hacked," he explained. "I could bypass it, but it would take too long."

"Just get Jack out now," Shepard ordered. "We'll have to fight our way out anyway. The prisoners will help keep the Blue Suns off us."

Lance nodded, hacking the controls a quickly as possible to get Jack out of cryo, causing an alarm to go off across the ship, indicating all the cells had opened.

They watched as a crane arm reached for Jack's cryo tube, spinning it open and lifting it up. As the smoke cleared, they looked at Jack in surprise. "That's Jack?" Lance said, confused.

Jack looked like a woman, belt-straps crossing her chest and tattoos covering her torso. She had a buzz-cut and looked thin, almost as if she hadn't eaten.

She slowly woke, ripping her wrists from the restraints before removing the one around her neck. A blue hue appeared around her before she charged, screaming in rage, at the three heavy mechs in front of her. The room shook as she tore them apart, parts flying everywhere. _Holy shit._

"Hurry up," Grunt urged, eager to get moving. "I want to see how long she'll last."

Shepard nodded and opened the door that led to where Jack was. They walked down the ramp and went through another door, entering the room.

There were parts everywhere, some of which were sparking, and a huge hole in the wall across from them.

"She's going to tear this ship apart," Lance said. "We should hurry."

They followed the carnage Jack left, fighting through Blue Suns guards and prisoners alike, the ship's VI providing ship-wide status updates, which were notices of power failures and hull breaches. The ship shook occasionally as they fought, obviously because of Jack's rampage.

Eventually, they reached a room where Kuril had barricaded himself, holding off prisoners who were trying to escape.

He killed one last prisoner before firing his assault rifle, a Revenant, at Shepard one-handed, the bullet ricocheting off a nearby crate. They scattered for cover, Kuril saying, "You're valuable, Shepard. I could have sold you and lived like a king." He fired his rifle again, aiming at Lance. _Asshole._ "But you're too much trouble. At least I can recapture Jack."

He fired again, aiming at Grunt. "Not happening," Shepard said, not leaving any room for argument. "You're a slave trader and I don't have time for your bullshit."

Kuril opened his mouth to speak, but before he could say anything, Lance's combat drone shocked him. He doubled over in pain as Lance hacked the shield generators around the room, shutting them down. Shepard took the opportunity, launching himself at Kuril, sending him flying into the wall head-first. A loud 'crack' and Kuril dropped to the floor below where he hit the wall, which was fifteen feet up, crumpling into a ball.

Lance and Grunt walked over as Shepard jumped down, Lance saying, "He always was a greedy bastard. Wish I had shot him sooner."

"Why did you drain his account and blackmail him?" Shepard asked, less curious than suspicious. "For a job?"

"Nah. I just wanted some extra creds. The blackmail was to make sure he didn't send the Suns after me. I guess it wouldn't hurt to let his files hit the extranet now." He activated his omni-tool and did just that, smirking when all the files were sent.

Shepard rolled his eyes and they left for where they had first entered, hoping that Jack would be there.

* * *

Jack had finally gotten to an airlock that was occupied by a ship. She ran and slid under a door as it closed, standing up after she cleared it.

"Stop!" one of the guards ordered, holding out a hand.

She ignored it, lifting the other up with her biotics and slamming him into the window, which cracked, but didn't shatter. She turned and threw the first guard into the opposite wall, who fell down below the walkway.

She took a couple steps forward and looked out the window at the ship docked there. That's when she saw the black and yellow logo on the side of its cockpit. "Cerberus," she muttered.

_ Son of a bitch!_ She paced back and forth, punching at the air in frustration. She heard footsteps to her right and looked to see a guard charging at her, only to be brought down by a well-placed shot to the head. She whipped her head around to see two humans and a krogan standing there, one with his pistol aimed where the guard had been.

She flared up her biotics as he holstered his pistol. "What do you want?" she demanded, not trusting them.

"I just saved your ass," the man pointed out, the various scars on his face shifting as he spoke.

"He was already dead, he just didn't know it."

The man's eyebrow rose, almost as if he was impressed with her attitude. "I'm Commander Shepard. I'm here to recruit you."

'_Recruit'? We'll see about that._ "You show up in a Cerberus frigate and expect me to believe you? Do you think I'm stupid?"

Shepard's brow furrowed, almost as if he was annoyed. "This ship is going down in flames. I've got the only way out, and you're arguing."

_ Shit. He's right._ "We could just shoot her and patch her up on the ship," the krogan said, sounding annoyed. The other man raised an eyebrow and looked at the krogan from the corner of his eye.

"Take your best shot," she replied, challenging them.

"Considering what she just did to this ship, I don't think that's a good idea, Grunt," the other man said.

"Fine," Shepard said, obviously annoyed. "We won't attack her."

"Good move," she commented. "You want me to come with you? Make it worth my while."

Shepard took two steps forward, intrigued. "What are you suggesting?"

"Bet your ship's got lots of Cerberus databases. I want to look at them."

Shepard glanced at the man behind him, almost as if he had done something. "As soon as we get the servers back up, I'll give you full access."

Jack raised an eyebrow. _What the hell does that mean?_

"I already told you, it wasn't me," the man said, rubbing his temple with his thumb and forefinger. "Your damn AI said the attack came from an outside source."

She rolled her eyes before saying, "You better be straight up with me, Shepard."

Shepard's eyes turned back toward her and he nodded.

"Then what the hell are we waiting for?"

"Come on," Shepard ordered, his team following him.


	8. Chapter 8

_**A/N:**_ Sorry this one is so late. I haven't given myself much time to type.

This month, I've had the most views I've ever had! A huge thanks to all you guys! This chapter isn't all that long, but I'll try to have another one up soon.

Enjoy!

* * *

Lance had been waiting outside the briefing room while Shepard and Miranda got Jack up to speed. He could tell that Jack had a history with Cerberus, and it most likely wasn't a pleasant one. He wasn't really one to eavesdrop, but he heard Jack say something that sounded like 'Cerberus cheerleader.' He assumed that she was talking about Miranda.

The door whooshed open and Jack walked out, jerking her head toward Lance. "You want something?" she said, sounding annoyed.

"I can help you get whatever Cerberus files you want."

She raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Not here. Need somewhere more secluded."

Jack eyed him suspiciously. "Why do you want to help?"

"Cerberus has been trying to kill me, and you obviously hate 'em. Why not?"

"If they've been trying to kill you, why are you here?"

_ She really is suspicious._ "Shepard recruited me. Since he's in charge, Cerberus can't touch me. Do you want the files or not?"

Jack was quiet for a second before she replied, "Yeah. Let's go."

Jack started walking toward the tech lab, where Mordin normally was, and Lance followed her, his laptop hidden under his shirt.

* * *

They made it to Engineering via the elevator and walked down a flight of stairs that was located between the engine room and the hallway that connected the port cargo hold, were Grunt usually was, and the starboard cargo hold, where Zaeed had made himself at home.

They came out to the sub-deck, which had a cot and a few crates stacked up, as well as a table. As he walked toward the table, Lance slipped his laptop out from under his shirt. He put it on the table and opened it, powering it on.

"How are you gonna get me the files I want?" Jack asked, impatient.

"Shepard told you about the servers being taken down, right?" he started, Jack nodding in response. "Well, I started this hacker coalition on the extranet when I was about nineteen. Before Shepard recruited me, Cerberus had taken down the main site and two of the backup wikis. I used the third to get everyone up to speed and told them to copy any files they could find and brick Cerberus' servers."

Jack raised an eyebrow in response. _Shit, that's right. She's not a hacker._

He looked around to make sure that there were no bugs in the area before he explained. "Bricking is basically overloading a server with so much garbage data that it destroys the server's viability, making it useless. That makes it extremely illegal."

"And your group hit all of Cerberus' servers?" He nodded. "Damn."

Jack seemed genuinely **impressed**. "A good enough programmer can fix it, but it could take weeks, months, sometimes years. Not sure how long it would take for the AI, but it's got programming shackles on it so I doubt it's going to be able to do anything about it."

As he set his laptop to jump from server to server in the system they were in, he noticed Jack smirk out the corner of his eye. He could imagine whoever was leading Cerberus, probably the Illusive Man, tearing their hair out over the servers. The thought made him smile in satisfaction.

He had been able to cripple a rogue paramilitary force, which likely was made up of thousands, with just a few hundred guys with computers. If that didn't convince people not to mess with /The_Messengers/, or hackers in general, nothing would.

He eventually got to his email and saw that he had a message from Vaenia. He opened it and it read, _Got the files. Azure wants to talk to u ASAP, but won't tell me why. We're all waiting for u to pop back onto the wiki. Some of the guys r getting twitchy about holding onto the files._

_- V_

He went to the wiki and a chat request from Azure showed up immediately. He opened it, typing, _Something wrong?_

_ You need to see this_, Azure replied, sending a file.

He opened the file, and saw that it listed nearly every aspect of his life, from his address to his eating habits. "What the hell?" he said under his breath.

Jack must have heard him, because she said, "What's wrong?"

He looked over to her and saw that she was sitting on the cot, leaning back against a bar that ran the length of the bed. "Cerberus has got a file on me. They know everything about me."

"Knew," she corrected. Jack was right. Cerberus didn't have the files anymore, and Lance doubted that every Cerberus operative had his information memorized.

He looked back to the screen and scrolled down to the bottom. When he read it, he understood why Cerberus kept going after him.

_ Neutralization Priority: Eliminate on site._

He closed out the file and went back to the chat box, typing, _How many of these files they got?_

_ Too many_, Azure replied. _They got 1 on me too._

_ Shit. Alright, send em over._ A beep from his laptop as the files were set over and he added, _Don't tell anyone. I'll let Vaenia know and we'll decide what to do._

_ Alright._

He closed out the chat box and sent a chat request to Vaenia, who responded immediately.

_ Finally_, Vaenia typed. _Was wondering when u'd be back._

_ We've got a BIG problem._

_ What do u mean?_

_ Cerberus has files on everyone._

_ Shit. Would should we do?_

_ idk. But we got the files now. Cerberus won't be able to use em._

_ Should we tell the others?_

_ I'm not sure. What do you think?_

_ Hmm… They should know. U gonna send those files to Aria too?_

_ Just the ones on her hackers. Nothing more._

_ Good idea. Here r the rest of the files. I'll let everyone know._

_ K._ His laptop beeped as the files started being sent, which he downloaded to his omni-tool. The sheer amount of files meant that it would take hours before he got everything, so he set the files to go directly to his omni-tool.

"You got the files?" Jack asked, sounding real impatient.

"Getting 'em now. Gonna take a few hours."

"Shit. Guess we're waiting."

"Yeah."

Lance went back to his email and saw nothing new, so he decided to shutdown the laptop. He closed it and turned to Jack, asking, "What's your history with Cerberus?"

"Why do you care?" She crossed her arms across her chest.

Lance shrugged. "Just curious."

Jack grunted before replying, "They raised me. Tried to make me into some kind of super-biotic."

"Considering what you did to the Purgatory, I'd say it worked."

She glared at him. _Oops. Shouldn't have said that._ "They drugged and tortured me, you asshole."

"Sorry."

She rolled her eyes and continued. "One day, a couple of guards were taking me to my cell when some of them left to deal with some sort of emergency. I just killed everything in my way and ran. Guess my biotics had developed faster than they thought. I managed to get a ship off the ground and I drifted in orbit for a while before a freighter picked me up. The crew used me, then sold me. That's my uplifting escape story."

Lance was speechless. Sure, he had a hard life, but Jack was something else.

"Damn. I had no idea."

"No shit." She rolled her eyes again. "What about you?"

He wasn't sure how much he wanted to say. _She just told me about how she got away from Cerberus. I might as well tell her I work for Aria._ "I'm Aria's top hacker. She gives me jobs from time-to-time and pays real good. She wanted me to hack into Cerberus' databases and grab everything they had. When I got back to my place, I grabbed my laptop and got a few of my best hackers to help me out. I eventually found some files and copied them. Downloaded them to my omni-tool. I heard knocking at my door and I closed my laptop. Before I got up, I looked out my window and saw someone watching me from another apartment. I ran over to my pistols and grabbed one before they blew the door down and killed all of them except one. I left him for Aria, but he bit down on a cyanide capsule before he said anything. Eventually got to a safe house on the Citadel with couple of friends who helped me get off Omega. A few hours later, Cerberus attacked. Then Shepard came and saved our asses and here I am."

Jack didn't say anything, but she didn't seem impressed at all. "You got the files?"

He checked his omni-tool. He was still receiving files, and he wasn't even half way done. He shook his head and he heard Jack grunt in annoyance.

Then he heard a series of beeps come from his omni-tool, indicating that he had received a message. Jack's omni-tool beeped too, and she activated it. Lance pulled up the message and it read, _We're heading to Horizon. Report to Mordin for armor upgrades. They will protect us from the Collector's seeker swarms._

_- Shepard._

"Collectors? Shit."


End file.
